In attempting to combat the problem of narcotic addiction and particularly addiction to heroin, considerable attention has been given in recent years to oral administration of drugs which have the effect of greatly reducing or abolishing narcotic hunger and blocking the euphoriant action of the heroin or other addictive drugs. Particularly encouraging results have been achieved when using the drug methadone in the form of the free base or acid salts thereof such a methadone hydrochloride. While methadone itself has some addictive tendencies when administered orally, it does not have euphoriant properties and has been found effective when treating addicts in blocking both narcotic hunger and the euphoriant action of other addictive drugs.
The accepted procedure in the oral administration of methadone or its acid salts has been to incorporate the same into a powder or water soluble tablets of dosage unit size, dissolving in a small quantity of orange juice or other fruit juice and having the patient drink this juice solution. The effectiveness of treatment is largely dependent upon an established treatment schedule being adhered to; and when treating out-patients, they are provided with a limited number of doses with specific instructions as to frequency of use.
In preparing tablets containing methadone or its acid salts for use in the manner described, it has been the practice to provide a readily water soluble composition so that the powder or tablets can be quickly and easily dissolved in fruit juice for administration. A problem with powders or tablets of the type heretofore available, however, is that they can also be dissolved in plain water to provide a solution which can be filtered fairly easily, and concentrated by evaporation to produce an aqueous residue sufficiently rich in methadone to be attractive to addicts when administered by injection as a substitute for their habitual addictive drugs. Drug addicts have been quick to recognize this possibility and the need for guarding and policing supplies of methadone and its acid salts have tended to limit the more extended use of these drugs in oral maintenance therapy.
Conventional methadone hydrochloride tablets are also potentially hazardous if a quantity of tablets are accidentally ingested. In fact, several fatalities have been reported due to out-patients' supplies of methadone hydrochloride being found and ingested by children.